Chpt 9: The Beginning of the End?

By the time Danny woke up from his nap, his father had returned home. He had no choice but to re-tell his story of how he "escaped" the evil ghost's clutches. After about a million questions from both his parents after he'd finished the story, he finally persuaded his mom to let him go up to his own room. She didn't want to let him out of her sight ever since she brought him back home. Finally he had some time to breathe. He had some silence and privacy to think about how to would get his friends back. The problem was he didn't know where to start. They could possibly be in the ghost zone, or maybe they were still in the city. Danny ruffled his hair in frustration. He had absolutely no leads! The only thing he could think of doing was confronting Plasmius about it. Really it was the only thing he could do. He couldn't sit by any longer. He had to find his arch-rival.

Danny sat up from his bed and decided he'd better come up with something to make sure no one would come in and check on him. He walked over to his door, opened it and walked into the hall. He looked over the stair railing and saw his parents sitting in the living room.

" Hey, Mom," said Danny. " I'm going to go to sleep now. It's been a long day."

Maddie looked up at her son, " Okay, honey. Good night."

" Good night, son," said Jack.

Danny smiled as he walked back to his bedroom and locked the door behind him.

After that he quickly changed into a ghost and flew out into the night to find Plasmius. He flew around silently for a few minutes looking everywhere, but didn't have to look for long. Soon he saw a black fortress in the distance hovering above the town.

" Since when was this here?" Danny asked himself.

He flew up to the front doors which were instantly thrown open.

" Daniel, you made it," Plasmius smiled. " I wondered how long it would be before you came here."

" Where are my friends?" Danny demanded.

" Don't worry, they're safe. They're right inside," Plasmius said.

" How do I know you're telling the truth?"

" Why wouldn't I be?"

Danny and Vlad locked eyes and exchanged glares at one another until Vlad grabbed young Danny's collar and pulled him inside the humongous castle, the doors closing behind them.

" Do you like my new home, Daniel? No human can see it. Only ghosts can," Plasmius said.

" Enough small talk! I came here to get my friends back, and I'm not leaving without them!" cried Danny.

" Really? Because I don't think you'll be leaving at all."

With those words, Plasmius began attacking Danny with all his might, hitting him with his small pink ectoplasmic blasts. After awhile, he stopped his attack abrubtly as Danny stumbled backwards into the stone wall behind him in a daze.

" Come on, Danny. It wouldn't be a fair fight if I didn't allow you to attack me at least once," taunted Plasmius. Danny looked up with anger in his eyes. Before Plasmius could do anything, Danny flew towards him and pinned him to the ground. " Very good, Daniel, I am impressed. Too bad you're still too weak to defeat me." Plasmius then turned intangible and phased through the floor, leaving Danny alone in the room.

The young ghost hybrid looked around rapidly. Plasmius couldn't be too far away. Instantly, Danny was thrown forward. This time he was able to catch himself and stop from being splattered against the wall. He turned around to see Plasmius with a smug look on his face.

" You didn't actually think I left, did you?" he asked.

Danny glared at his nemesis again, " No. I didn't."

" So much venom in your voice, Daniel. Is it really even necessary? Afterall, this fight isn't going to last much longer."

" Why wouldn't it?" asked Danny.

Plasmius smirked as he suddenly appeared right next to Danny. Without any hesitation, he grabbed his young foe by the wrist and sent what felt like electricity all throughout poor Danny's body. Danny screamed in pain as Plasmius held him in place and laughed. After five minutes of torture, Plasmius let Danny fall to the floor and watched as he turned back to a human.

" W-why are you doing this?" Danny asked weakly, lying flat on his back.

" Maybe in death your question will be answered," said Plasmius. He saw the frightened look in Danny's pain filled eyes and smirked one last time before sending a stream of ectoplasmic energy straight at him. The young ghost-boy screamed in pain as the attack hit him. The light from the attack was so bright that Plasmius couldn't see Danny, but hearing his voice made him smile just the same. When Plasmius finished the attack, Danny lay motionless before him. " It's almost a shame I had to get rid of you like this, Danny. Afterall, you were already weak from crashing into your bedroom wall. Your painful headaches messed with your concentration. Of course, even if you would have been at full-power, I would have still defeated you easily."

" Sir, why did you get rid of him so soon? I thought you were going to torture him more before you attacked him," said Skulker who had watched the entire fight from the shadows.

" I couldn't wait any longer," answered Plasmius. " But now I can get my plan into action. Tomorrow morning we'll round up all the humans and keep them in the park by trapping them in your cages. They'll watch as Danny's friends suffer for not coming forward to say who The Halfa was, and everyone will find out about the horrible mistake they made for trying to find the 'evil ghost.'"

Skulker nodded, " What shall the rest of us do until tomorrow?"

" Get some rest. We'll all need some in order to gather up all the ignorant people in this town."

Skulker nodded again before leaving to tell the other ghosts. Plasmius stayed in the main hall, still looking at Danny. After a few more seconds, he left his castle and headed for the Fenton's home.

" It's getting late, Jack. I think maybe we should go to bed. We'll need to be fully rested to look for Jazz, Sam, and Tuck tomorrow," said Maddie.

" Aw. Do we have to right now?" whined Jack.

" Yes."

" But I'm not even tired yet!"

" Jack Fenton, you march up those steps and you go to bed," ordered Maddie.

Suddenly, there was a knock on their front door.

" I'll get it!" cried Jack as he ran past his wife and opened the door to find Plasmius standing outside.

" Plasmius? What are you doing here?" Maddie asked while walking over to the door.

" I came because I have some terrible news," he answered.

" What kind of terrible news?" asked Jack.

" It regards your son. I'm afraid that he's now missing too."

" What? That's preposterous! Danny is asleep in his room," said Maddie.

" Well if you're so sure, check."

Maddie frowned as she turned and walked upstairs, closely followed by Jack and Plasmius. Maddie knocked on her son's door. " Danny? Honey, are you awake in there?" She tried turning the door knob but found that it was locked. " Well that's strange. Danny has never locked his door before."

" Oh allow me to get us inside," said Plasmius. He took Jack and Maddie and phased them all through the door.

" Whoa, that was cool," said Jack.

" Danny, wake up," said Maddie while flipping on the light. She gasped when she saw that Danny wasn't there. " This...this is impossible! I watched Danny come in here. He has to be here somewhere!"

" I tried to tell you. The Halfa is once again responsible. He sent me a message saying that he'd taken Danny back. I am still on the trail of finding all the missing children and wherever they are is probably where Danny is too. Don't worry, I will rescue them and I will defeat that evil monster. He'll pay for kidnapping all of them," said Plasmius, comforting the distraught parents.

They gave Plasmius a weak smile before he left and flew back to his fortress in the sky. Once inside, he saw the body of Danny still lying on the floor.

" Perhaps we should give you a more proper place to lie in rest," he said to Danny's body. He smirked and picked up the boy by his shirt collar and flew through the ceiling of the main hall into another room. In this room, the three people who occupied it were panicing a bit due to the fact that they thought they were trapped in an invisible box hovering above their town. " Here, I've brought someone here who you all know." Plasmius smirked as he threw Danny to the ground and phased back through the floor.

The three people in the room looked over at the motionless body and gasped.

" Danny!" they all cried. Each of them ran over to him.

" Is he okay?" asked Tuck who was knealing by Danny's left side.

" I-I don't know," answered Sam, who was opposite of Tucker.

Jazz sat behind Danny's head looking at him silently. He wasn't breathing. " Danny..." she said, letting a tear slip from her eyes onto her little brother's cheek.

" No way. Danny can't be...can he?" Tuck asked.

No one said anything. They all stared down at their friend, letting tears fall from their eyes.

" Not after everything we've been through together," Tuck muttered.

No one said much for the rest of the night. They didn't exactly know what to say. Danny was an important person in all their lives and now he was gone. The only thing heard that night was the sound of their sobs and sniffling. Eventually each of them decided to go to sleep and used Danny as a sort of pillow, not wanting to leave his side.

The next morning, the three teens were awakened by many voices. Sam sat up and blinked her eyes many times to adjust them to the new day's bright sun and looked down to see the streets filled with people. She watched as ghosts rallied them down the street in the direction of the park. Jazz and Tuck woke up soon after her and saw the same sight.

" What's going on?" asked Tuck.

" I have no idea," answered Jazz.

" HEY! ANYBODY! HELP US!" Sam cried at them, but no one stopped or even looked up at her.

" Dude, that's weird," said Tuck. " Who wouldn't notice four kids randomly floating in the sky? Especially if one of them yelled at you."

" Maybe we're protected by a barrier," suggested Jazz.

" Probably," Tuck replied.

" Then what can we do?" asked Sam.

" You can come with us," said a foreign voice.

They looked over their shoulders to see three ghost-guards who didn't look like they would be giving them much of a choice. The guards flew over, picked up the three children and flew invisibly ahead of everyone to the park where they placed the children within a cage. A cage that happened to be behind Vlad Plasmius.

" I hope you all enjoy this. You're going to be some of the most important people here today," Plasmius smirked to them.

The three teens glared at him. He turned away from the children so his back was facing them as three gaurds came to float infront of the cage, hiding the people inside. Plasmius then waited for the rest of the town to arrive. He was going to enjoy this.